Julian Daley, right, has lost a bid to have his 15-year sentence for his role in the killing of Divyendu Sinha in Old Bridge in 2010, reduced.Patti Sapone/The Star Ledger

NEW BRUNSWICK — An appeals court has upheld the 15-year prison sentence given Julian Daley for his role in the beating death of an Old Bridge man out for an evening walk with his family in June 2010.

In a one-paragraph order, the two judges said, “we are satisfied that the disposition (the sentence) is not manifestly excessive or unduly punitive and does not constitute an abuse of discretion.”

Daley, now 19, was the fourth of five teenagers originally charged with killing Divyendu Sinha, 49, a computer scientist, on June 25, 2010, at the end of a night of drinking and smoking marijuana.

He pleaded guilty in February 2013 to aggravated manslaughter, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and an unrelated burglary in a deal with Middlesex County First Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Kuberiet. He also agreed to testify against co-defendants Christian Tinli and Cash Johnson. The other two co-defendants, Steven Contreras and Christopher Conway, had already pleaded guilty to charges in the case and agreed to testify at the trial of Tinli and Johnson.

The jury for Tinli and Johnson’s trial acquitted the pair of murder and aggravated assault but convicted them of simple assault, a disorderly person’s offense. Each received six months in the Middlesex County jail.

Contreras hired a new attorney and filed an unsuccessful motion to retract his guilty plea. Conway, who also pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and Daley, filed for reconsideration of their sentences after Conway received a seven-year prison term and Daley received 15 years. Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz, who presided over the case, denied both motions.

Contreras, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and would have received a four-year prison term had he testified truthfully, is serving 12 years because Ferencz ruled that he lied when he testified during the trial of Tinley and Johnson, negating the plea bargain. The four-year sentence was thrown out and Contreras faced the maximum of 10 years on a second-degree charge.

Contreras was acquitted of murder and aggravated manslaughter in 2012, but the jury could not decide on reckless manslaughter and convicted him on several third-degree and fourth-degree assault, riot and hindering charges. He pleaded guilty before the state retried him on the reckless manslaughter charge.

According to trial testimony, the five, who were teenagers in 2010, were drinking and smoking marijuana behind an elementary school in Old Bridge the night of June 25, 2010. Contreras testified he did not smoke or drink because he was driving.

With Contreras driving them around, the group instigated a road-rage incident on their way home, but when it failed to result in a fight, they agreed to find someone else to assault. They saw four people walking on Fela Drive and all but Contreras got out of the car to chase them. The four turned out to be Sinha, his wife, Alka, and their two sons, out for a walk in their neighborhood.

The family was attacked and Sinha died three days later from a brain hemorrhage.